A lot of students aren’t aware that there is a free movie theater on campus, but Tufts Film Series is working to change that. Co-chairs Sarah Gordon and Timothy Charouk, both juniors, work hard to manage the Film Series, which provides pre-selected movies every Friday and Saturday in Barnum 008. Gordon has held this position since the beginning of her sophomore year. She spoke with the Daily about changes in Film Series attendance, challenges that she faces as co-chair and her hopes for Film Series in the future.
A modified version of the interview follows.
The Tufts Daily: How long have you been involved with Film Series?
Sarah Gordon: I’ve been involved with Film Series since freshman year fall. I found the club at the club fair and I started going to their meetings almost immediately, and I’ve been a part of it ever since.
TD: How has Film Series changed since you began?
SG: It has actually changed drastically. When I entered as a freshman, it was kind of at a low point in its existence. Not as a fault to anybody. It’s just there’s been a natural decline in the amount of people who want to come see movies because of Netflix, or because of movies that can be pirated on the computer. Nobody really wants to leave their room, you know. It’s just sort of a convenience issue. At the beginning, when I was a freshman and even last year as a sophomore, there was very low attendance. We were having issues getting people to come to our movies. But this year -- we are not entirely sure exactly what’s happening -- our attendance has grown tremendously. Because the numbers were low we can actually say that they’ve quadrupled, which is pretty exciting. I don’t know if it’s the movies we’re choosing, or if it’s our advertising, which we have definitely amped up, but we’re having a ton more people come to each of our showings. It’s definitely making a comeback, which is exciting.
TD: What are your goals for this year?
SG: Our goals for this year are to hopefully try and maintain this attendance growth and to collaborate more with clubs. We’re collaborating with the LGBT Center [and Tufts Burlesque] on "Rocky Horror Picture Show"(1975) for Halloween night ... Our [other] goal is just to make sure that people know that this is a resource available to them. I talk to people about Film Series all the time and they’re like, “Oh, I didn’t know we had that.” So I just want people to know that we have a movie theater on campus that shows free movies every single weekend, and they’re great movies so people should come.
TD: With regards to your collaborations, for the screenings of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (2014) and "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014), screened on Sept. 26 and 27,you collaborated with Another Option. Do you plan to do more with them in the future?
SG: Yes, we will definitely collaborate with Another Option more in the future ... Another Option is the club on campus that promotes activities that don’t involve drinking and partying. That’s actually a big part of Tufts Film Series' mission statement: to provide good, clean fun for people on campus, because we show movies every Friday and Saturday. Obviously parties are going on then, so we definitely want people who maybe don’t want to go to a party on that night to come to our movies. It’s not bad to party -- definitely go to parties, have fun with your friends -- but if you want a low key night, Film Series is always there to watch a movie.
TD: Why do you think Film Series attendance has increased so dramatically?
SG: We’ve been discussing this question a lot at our weekly meetings, because we as a club are actually kind of confused by the increased attendance. We’re really, really excited about it, but we are confused, so we’ve discussed it a lot. We think that we definitely chose really recent, popular movies over these first few weeks. I think that people don’t always have time to go to the actual movie theater, and then when they see that we’re playing [a movie] just a few months later, they think, “Oh, we should definitely go see that, I didn’t get a chance to see it.” ... The most exciting thing was that we got “The Giver”(2014) [when it] was actually still in theaters, and we played that in collaboration with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, [which] happen[s] to know one of the producers. Barnum 008 was completely full -- over 150 to 200 people were there. So we definitely see the correlation between the release date of the movie and how many people come to it.
TD: So your choice of movies has definitely helped to make Film Series more popular, in your opinion?
SG: Yes, absolutely. A lot of us are film nerds, and we love older films; we love classics, cult movies. And we know that a lot of other people love them too, it’s just not what brings people. We really have to grab the attention of the general public, the general student body, and bring them to the movies. While they might love those [classic] movies, they’ve probably a) already seen them or b) can find them so easily on the internet, whereas newer movies are harder to get a hold of with good quality. It’s just more exciting, and they’ve been hearing other friends talking about the movie, and they’re like “Okay, I have to go see that, so I can get in on the conversation.”
TD: Do you feel that you’ve in any way compromised the values of Film Series by showing more popular movies?
SG: We don’t feel like we’ve compromised it, no. We still do show some more classic movies. We [recently] showed “The Usual Suspects”(1995) and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”(1998), which are older movies, definitely classics. People enjoy them a lot, and we’re just sprinkling them in amongst the more recent movies. We need to reevaluate our mission -- that we are the campus movie theater. We have to give the people what they want, even if it’s not exactly what everybody in Film Series wants. So, well, while I don’t think that “Neighbors”(2014) that we showed at the beginning of the year was the greatest movie ever, it was really funny, and people came to it. That’s the point of Film Series: for people to get together and watch a movie.
TD: Has there been any discord within Film Series over choice of movies?
SG: Not so much. The way that we pick our schedules is the last week of the semester we choose the movies for the next semester in this big, elaborate meeting where we have a list of over a hundred movies and we all vote, and then we choose the movies based on the ones that got the most votes. There were a few arguments like “Yeah, that’s popular, but I hate that movie,” but we all agreed that it’s just better to start shifting towards more popular movies to get people coming. Once people know about us then maybe we can reevaluate -- maybe not show as many big blockbusters, but show some more quality films, if you will. But right now I’m happy with the schedule that we have and the attendance that it’s brought.
TD: Have you considered maybe doing a weekend with an older movie and a newer movie to draw both audiences?
SG: We do that sometimes. There [are] a lot of factors that determine the schedule: when the companies can give us movies, when they’re available, what we choose. We do try to put an old and a new together sometimes, but it doesn’t always work out that way ... Something else that we really did differently this year was our advertising at the club fair. Our delightful head projectionist, Tafari Duncan, went crazy at the club fair ... His enthusiasm was really inspiring and inspired all the other club members to do better... So many of the freshmen this year already have so much enthusiasm and are revitalizing our club. I think that that’s what we really needed -- new blood and new ideas -- so I’m really thankful to the sophomores and the freshmen who have given us that.
The schedule for Tufts Film Series is available on Facebook and on the group's website.
